Airport '77

1st watched 8/12/2007 - 6 out of 10(Dir-Jerry Jameson): Surprisingly appealing rescue movie despite some of the silly characterizations and typical goofiness that tends to accompany these type of movies. The thing that the movie does well is hold your attention to the very end. You genuinely care for some of the characters involved primarily because of the good acting by leads like Jack Lemmon, who plays the pilot in this one. The danger also seems very real all the way up to the end which adds to it's believability. The movie starts setting up the story as an airline president and master collector, played by Jimmie Stewart, is promoting the opening of a museum and a new plane that will be sent down to the island paradise with his very special guests. Included on the plane are his daughter and grandson, whom he has not seen for a very long time. A small group including one of the co-pilots decide to capture the plane while it's airborne, putting the passengers to sleep, in hopes to take it's valuables and run off to South America. Their plan goes awry when the pilot crashes in a shallow part of the ocean(wherever that might be) in the Bermuda triangle. The rest of the movie is an underwater rescue movie as the plane drifts to the shallow bottom. There are the usual stupid moments, like allowing the pilot to go nuts but the women passengers can't for some reason, and the attempt to save the plane in-tact with the people is a little far-fetched. These are the moments that get you talking to the screen. But despite this, the overall effect of the movie is satisfying which I honestly didn't expect because these movies usually don't appeal to me. I really think that the strong presence of the believable hero in Jack Lemmon as the pilot really helped the movie become a little more than the typical disaster movie for me.

Plastic acting and stock characters detailing a hectic flight in 747 Boeing . It is an insincere , slick attempt to find box-office magic again , and , really , it achieved a hit smash . This is the third of four movies in the "Airport" series adapted from the Arthur Hailey novel . It's exciting and amusing but full clichés and stereotypes , including the unavoidable accident , with passable acting by all-star-cast . Twist to this in-flight catastrophe is that the bad time in the air happen underwater . The movie is another jetliner epic with hero Jack Lemmon as valiant pilot . Billionaire -James Stewart- fills his converted passenger commercial airline of the American Airlines 747 with priceless paintings and sets off to Palm Beach for a museum opening being piloted by Jack Lemmon , Robert Foxworth and joined by an invited band of hijackers , and being subsequently crashed into the sea . Describing the reactions of the crew and passengers as they cope with the impeding doom . At the end takes places a daring rescue attempt . The film is detailing hectic flighty piloted by Jack Lemmon and the relationship among passengers . If you've seen the original ¨Airport¨ by George Seaton based on the Arthur Hailey's novel 'the daddy of them all' , you have seen them all .

This old-fashioned catastrophe picture contains thriller , suspense , drama , moderate tension and being quite entertaining though with some flaws and gaps . All clichéd and stock roles with regurgitation of all usual stereotypical situations from disaster films , including a fairly moronic screenplay . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of an enjoyable acting by Jack Lemmon , bringing life to character , in fact , to prepare for his role, Jack attended both diving school and flight training school , as he wanted to know what all the knobs and dials were for . Look quickly to Robert Hooks , Monte Markham , Kathleen Quinlan , Darren McGavin ,Gil Gerard , M. Emmet Walsh , Pamela Bellwood ,Michael Pataki , James Booth and Chris Lemmon , Jack's son as Radioman . And , of course , it appears the classic character Patroni played by usual George Kennedy continuing his role appeared in all four "Airport" pictures . The motion picture was professionally directed by Jerry Jameson , habitual TV director and occasionally for movie theater . Jerry went onto direct a similar sunken-vehicle high-concept picture around three years later with Raise the Titanic (1980) ; instead of raising a sunken 747 airplane from underwater it was the ship the Titanic . However , Airport '77 (1977) was box-office hit whereas Raise the Titanic (1980) was a box-office flop . It's an inoffensive diversion but is sometimes tediously unspooled . The film will appeal to Jack Lemmon fans and disaster genre enthusiasts .

This sagas belongs the following films : the first was ¨Airport¨ (1970) , unanimously deemed the best , it paved the way for many lesser flicks including its many sequels , being directed by George Seaton with Burt Lancaster , Jean Seberg , Dean Martin , Van Heflin ; ¨Airport 75¨ (1974) by Jack Smight with Charlton Heston , Karen Black and Gloria Swanson , ¨Airport 77¨ (1977) considered one of the best of the series , leading to the last of the tired ones , ¨Airport 79¨ , (1979) by David Lowell Rich with Alain Delon , Robert Wagner , Silvia Kristel . Furthermore , ¨ Skyjacked (1972) ¨ by John Guillermin with Charlton Heston , James Brolin and this film was parodied heavily in Airplane! (1980) by Jim Abrahams and David Zucker .

I can't imagine anything thinking that "Airport '77" is a great movie. After all, it takes the usual "Airport" formula and throws it into a premise that is not only bizarre but rather silly. Yet, oddly, despite this, the movie IS enjoyable and worth seeing.

A rich guy has arranged for a private luxury 747 airliner to bring friends and loved ones to a big party. What no one realizes, however, is that several members of the crew are planning on using knockout gas to take control of the plane and then land it on some abandoned airport in the Bahamas. Apparently, it's all because they plan on stealing some paintings aboard the plane....though this seemed like silly motivation. I would have also considered ransoming off the passengers...which they aren't planning on doing.

Speaking of not planning....the overly complicated plan goes awry when the plane is flying under radar and accidentally collides with some beacon. IMDB says fog was responsible....I never noticed fog in this scene at all. Regardless, the plan crash lands in the ocean and soon sinks in what IMDB says is about 100 feet of water*. The cabin has managed to stay air tight....at least for now. But with air running out, is there any chance at rescue?

Despite a totally ludicrous premise, the film manages to make it all seem possible...which it surely isn't as you continue watching the story. Regardless, the story IS engaging and interesting. I did find it unusual that Jack Lemmon of all people plays a bit of an action hero! But still, it does manage to entertain and it sure kept me glued to the screen.

*Although they said the plane was a hundred feet down, this really could NOT have been the case, as the pilot swimming to the surface clearly would have been highly unlikely (that is a LONG way to free dive for someone untrained) and if he had survived, he likely would have been a physical mess as a result of decompression. Here, it all looked too easy to be that deep and the water clarity made it seem like the plane was about 50 feet down...from which a dive to the surface is much, much more likely to result in survival. I've made such dives to the surface myself....which isn't easy but is so much safer and easier than from 100 feet.

Gazillionaire James Stewart is shipping his collection of art to a museum and he's using his private jet to fly the collection and a few friends down to meet him in Florida.

Of course this attracts the attention of a few crooks who have a pretty well thought out plan and the copilot, Robert Foxworth, working with them. Of course all good plans go awry and they go down in the Bermuda Triangle into some relatively shallow area of the Atlantic.

Hey they could have gone down and been lost for decades like the Titanic was.

That's essentially the plot here and in true Seventies disaster film tradition you load the screen with big names, dress them fashionably and put them in harm's way. The rest of the film is devoted to their rescue.

Incidentally the footage devoted to the air sea rescue is the best thing about Airport 77. No member of the audience will not go away impressed with the U.S. Navy's capabilities in that regard.

Jack Lemmon is the pilot and in an action role which is normally against type for him, he does quite well. Almost twenty years before he supported James Stewart in Bell, Book,and Candle and now the billing is most definitely reversed.

My favorites in the film are Joseph Cotten and Olivia DeHavilland, a classy and elegant pair of passengers who so typify the glamor of old Hollywood.

Christopher Lee also performs against type, he's not the villain here in fact he turns out quite the hero among the passengers. Lee Grant is his trollop of a wife and I remember seeing this in theaters and the shouts for joy from the audience when Brenda Vaccaro punches her out.

I'm not sure which is a wilder rescue this one or that other James Stewart film The Flight of the Phoenix. There's no way any of them should survive.

But this is a Hollywood disaster epic, so all things are possible.

So a plane crashes into the sea and we are about to witness the sheer rescue capabilities of the navy or spoken in a disaster movie term: human rescue capabilities.

The movie is based on a famous book by Royal Air Force pilot Arthur Hailey. I don't know about the book but the movie is based around polar opposites. Human vs nature is the true core of this film. The characters are/have always polar opposites. Rich and poor, altruism and egoism, young and old. The movie becomes enriched through the play of these different polarities. Iconic actors give the movie the class that it needs.

There is one more thing the movie creates. The romantic thought of safety through a certain kind of authority. It is the same romantic thought some have with German cars or the police as your friend and helper. Of course these thoughts are far from reality because there are thousands of people dying in the ocean around the globe. I speak of refugees that not get rescued by maritime service branches around the world. Even though I definitely doubt that if someone not as rich would be rescued like that. Nevertheless the movie, as smart as it is, shows the possibilities we had then (imagine what we could do today) and I think humans can do unimaginable things if we stick together and I like the thought I get from this movie: someday we might.

They don't make movies like that anymore. If military branches are shown today, they always fight. In todays disaster movies people need to help themselves or getting rescued by super heroes.